Twin Dragons
by samcarter34
Summary: The Twins Kulaan and Miraak make a daring move to cross into Skyrim, and get captured during an ambush. Attacked by a dragon, they get separated, and while they work to reunite with one another, they begin to uncover the truth of their destinies.
1. Introduction

Kulaan

_"Do you think mother and father will be home soon?" an eleven-year-old Kulaan asked his twin brother._

_ "I don't know Kulaan," his older twin Miraak answer, "Maybe they will, maybe they won't, be they will be back, they always are."_

"Kulaan, KULAAN!"

The shouting woke him from his dream. Groggily, Kulaan opened his eyes to find his brother staring at him, concern in his ice-blue eyes. Still trapped in the world of his dream, it took Kulaan a moment to remember what had happened, and where he was.

Then it all came back, it had been seven years since the day in his dream. Four since he had discovered the rotting corpses of him parents on one of his hunting trips. Deciding that they could no longer live in the house, Miraak and Kulaan had decided to sneak past the border into Skyrim and try to find a life there. Passing the border though, there had been pain, and fire, and…

"What happened?" Kulaan finally asked, his voice hoarse. He looked around to see he was on a cart across from Miraak. There were two others, a blonde man sitting next to Miraak, and a dark-haired man with nobility-class clothing sitting next to Kulaan. This man's mouth was bound by cloth. All of their hands were bound.

"You and your brother were attacked," The man so Miraak's left said, "You were trying to sneak past the border, but you got caught in an ambush, along with the rest of us."

"Rest of us?"

"They are members of the Stormcloak rebellion," Miraak said, not bothering to hide his anger, "Which," Miraak motioned with his head, "is lead by Ulfric Stormcloak."

"The leader," Kulaan thought, dread beginning to fill inside him, there was only one place for traitors, "Then where are they taking us?"

"Helgen," The blonde said, looking to his right, where the outline of a town was appearing in the distance, "I used to play here as a boy, I loved this town. Ironic that it all ends here."

"What is you name?" Kulaan asked the man.

"Ralof," he grunted, "No need to tell me your name, your brother here was yelling it for all of Skyrim to hear when you were unconscious, nasty trick of those damned elves, isn't it?"

"Ralof," Kulaan said slowly and calmly, "Before they…when we get to Helgen, you have to tell them that Miraak and I aren't involved with you, please, he and I have nothing to do with whatever rebellion you are waging, we shouldn't be put to death for something we didn't do."

Ralof actually laughed, "You think it matters to them what I say boy? In the cart behind us there is a horse-thief named Lokir. Theft earns nothing but a bounty equal to twice what you stole, yet he's here too. The Imperials don't care what you did, you get caught in one of their ambushes, you die, innocent or guilty."

"But-"

"Don't bother Kulaan, I already tried," Miraak said.

-We're going to get out of this somehow-

Miraak's voice spoke in his mind

-How?-

Kulaan thought desperately, he did not want to die, and he did not want to watch Miraak die.

-I don't know, but somehow we will get out of this. I promise you, my brother-

Kulaan nodded, and then looked around, needed something to distract him.

"What started it? This Stormcloak Rebellion?" Kulaan asked Ralof.

Ralof's eyes widened, "You don't know?"

"Miraak and I lived a pretty quite life."

"You shouldn't of left it. Have you ever heard of the White-Gold Concordat?"

"The deal struck between the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion?"

"Yes, that thrice damned thing. The Empire was forced to sign it, or risk annihilation. But, one of the things on that thing declared that Talos was a man, not a god, and that worshiping him was heretical."

"That must have gone over well."

"Like an enraged Orc in a fragile goods store. Only, it wasn't so bad to start off with. True, Talos is the chief deity in the eyes of the sons and daughters of Skyrim, and so many people were extremely angry that the Empire made this decision on behalf of everyone, but Empire was of like-mind to us. They were very lazy with enforcing that rule. Some cities even had shrines to Talos in the open area. But, then the Aldmeri Dominion started sending their little Thalmor 'Justiciars' and they screwed everything up. They started hunting down anyone associated with Talos-worship. And the Empire, and our own High King Torygg said, and did nothing to stop this from happening! Jarl Ulfric believed this was wrong, and that it was better to die for one's faith then live being forced not to be able to practice it. The White-Gold Concordat was struck between the Aldmeri Dominion and the Empire, but it had no control over provinces that were no longer part of the empire. So Jarl Ulfric sought to become High King so that he could lead Skyrim in becoming an independent state, he and High King Torygg faced off in single combat, according to the ancient Nord ways, and Ulfric won. However, the Empire called this treason, and declared war on Ulfric. So began the civil war."

"Did you consider talking to Torygg first?" Kulaan asked, he could understand fighting and killing for what you believed, but, "If you could have convinced High King Torygg to agree to seceding, there wouldn't be a war."

Ralof barked out a hollow laugh.

"If only it were that easy, but no. Torygg was on the Empire's payroll, there was no way he'd willing leave their side."

"Shut-up back there!" The soldier driving the cart shouted.

Kulaan looked and saw that they were approaching the gates of Helgen.

"End of the line," Ralof said, no emotion in his voice.

Kulaan looked to Miraak, panic in his eyes.

-We'll get out of this; this isn't the first time we've been in a tight spot-

-This is the first time we've been put on Death Row in a town full of Imperial Soldiers-

The gates opened, and the carts moved to the execution block.

One by one, the guards had people line up. A man named Lokir, the horse thief Ralof had mentioned, tried to make a run for it, but archers downed him before he could go twenty paces.

"Wait," The guard said, looking at the twins, "Who are you two?"

"My name is Miraak, and this is my brother Kulaan. There has been a mistake, he and I aren't rebels, we aren't involved with this. Please, let us go."

The guard looked uncertain, and turned to the captain for answers.

"Forget the list, they go to the block."

Kulaan felt cold, as he saw the guards going to grab Miraak, he felt a fury rise in him. He walked up to one of the guards, and put his arms around the neck of the guard, using his binds to choke the guard.

Immediately, others scrambled to drag him off of the guard, who was choking.

"We did nothing, and yet you condemn us to death, is this the great and moral Empire you all fight for!?"

There was grunting assents form the Stormcloak soldiers.

"Enough!" A man said while walking towards them.

This man wore fancy-looking armour, and was flanked by a female warrior, Nord from the look of her, and female Altmer.

"Who are you?" He asked Kulaan.

"Another nameless innocent you're condemning to death."

Than man smiled, but it was not with joy, but sorrow, here was a man who had had the weight of the world on his shoulders for far too long.

"Well unknown warrior, any last request?"

Kulaan thought for a moment, then turned to his twin, silently conveying sorrow and begging for forgiveness.

"Don't make me watch my brother die."

"Very well, put in in front of his twin."

Miraak shot Kulaan a look of rage, but Kulaan refused to meet his gaze, he knew he was a coward; he didn't need his brother confirming it.

"Let's begin, priestess!"

As the priestess began the burial chant, Kulaan felt a strange sense of peace come over him; it was about to be over.

However, when she mention the Eight Divines, one of the Stormcloaks invoked the name of Talos, and essentially told her to stuff it; Kulaan admired his courage.

A great roar filled the air, startling many.

"Ignore it," The captain said as the soldier put his head on the executioner's block, and Kulaan refused to look away as the man walked away.

"Next, the 'nameless warrior',"

Kulaan prepared to move forward, when a second roar filled the skies. Kulaan felt a strange sense of foreboding from it, he felt as if something awful was going to happen.

"Now!" The captain said.

Kulaan glanced at his brother

-Goodbye, I love you-

Miraak nodded, tears in his eyes.

Kulaan walked up to the block and put his head on it, preparing for the end.

A great black beast landed on one of the towers, and then let forth a shout that shook the ground, and loosened the heaven's rage upon the land.


	2. Kulaan:Escape from Helgen

Kulaan

The great beast roared and took off from the tower. Kulaan immediately jumped up from the head block, and moved to get out of the open. Looking to his side, he saw Miraak doing the same

-Meet me by the tower next to the main citadel- Kulaan spoke into his brother's mind

Miraak nodded and ran off.

"Get moving prisoner!" The guard he had attacked yelled at him, grabbing him and dragging him away.

"Yol Toor Shul"

The words echoed through the air, and seemed to reverberate within Kulaan's very soul.

The great black dragon opened its maw and unleashed a river of fire from it, incinerating everything it came into contact with, and causing many buildings to burn.

The meteors were still falling, causing explosions wherever they hit.

Another stream of fire rained down from the sky, and Kulaan ducked into a tower, where he noticed Ralof, and none other than Ulfric Stormcloak.

'Hey wouldn't have anything to do with this, would he?" Kulaan thought to himself, but no, he somehow could sense that this dragon didn't claw its way from the realm of myth at the beckon of a would-be king.

Ulfric was talking to his men as the climbed the stairs; Kulaan followed, but did not listen. He was concentrating on the wind, searching, searching.

Suddenly, Kulaan felt it, the change in the air, the beast beating its gigantic wings, it was near, it was…

"Right outside,' He said to himself, "Get Down!" He yelled at the soldiers in front of him

The men reacted too late, the wall exploded in fire and all but four were killed.

The beast moved away from the tower, likely to deal with the Imperials that were shooting at it.

He tried to get up, but stumbled and nearly fell of the stairwell, when someone grabbed his bound hands.

"Come on lad, we've come too far to die now," Ralof said, pulling him back up.

"Thanks," Kulaan said.

"Your Welcome, now, let's get out of here."

The smell of burned flesh had made its way up the stairwell, nearly causing Kulaan to vomit, he couldn't agree more.

Once at the top, he saw Ulfric and two others somehow on the ground, making way for the citadel.

"There's an underground passage out of this place under there, that thing seemed to be able to control when and where the meteors fall, they're preventing anyone from getting out those ways. We better get in the citadel before it realizes that there's a way out that way too."

"It already knows."

"WHAT? How do you know that?"

"Surely you heard the words it shouted before it unleashed that fire from its mouth, it has language. That means that is it sentient, just as you and I are. It didn't come here to hunt, it came here to kill. It's herding us so that there's only one way out, it's trying to find its victim."

"You seem to know a lot about this."

"I'm a hunter, I know how to read things, animal or not, everything follows certain patterns."

"Well then, that's interesting but it doesn't change things much, that's still the only way out, so, let's go."

Ralof jumped down to the second story of a burning building, and then ran off.

"This would be a lot easier for me to do if I could use my arms properly," He thought to himself, but jumped anyway.

He landed hard and rolled, stopping just next to an open patch of flame. Slowly, he worked his way down to the ground floor, taking care to avoid the weakest parts of the floor.

He got to the ground, and was greeted by the guard again.

"There you are, come on!" The guard grabbed him, and started dragging him to the citadel.

'I am really getting tired of this," Kulaan thought to himself.

Looking up, Kulaan suddenly grabbed the guard and pulled him to the side, as a meteor landed right where he had been a moment ago, as it was, the force of the explosion sent them both flying.

"Thank-you," The guard said.

"Your welcome, now let's go,"

The two ran to the citadel door, avoided the weapons of the dragon's wrath whenever they became pointed on them.

Once at the door, Kulaan looked around for Miraak, and found him running towards the door, with Ralof and another Stormcloak soldier.

Kulaan began to smile when he saw the beast flying right for them, beginning to open its maw

-LOOK OUT!-

Kulaan mentally screamed out towards his brother.

Miraak had just enough time to look up to the sky, when the same horrid three words echoed through the air, and fire erupted onto the land.

"NOOO!" Kulaan screamed and made to run to his brother, when the guard grabbed him and started pulling him into the citadel.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Kulaan roared.

"There is nothing you can do for him, getting yourself killed helps no one!" The guard screamed, finally getting him through the door.

The two panted for a few moments.

"I'm sorry," The guard said, "There was nothing you could have done for him, he's gone."

"He's not dead." Kulaan said adamantly, "I can still sense him, he's hurt, but he's not dead."

After a few more seconds,

"My name his Hadvar by the way."

"…Kulaan,"

"That's an interesting name, never heard it before."

"My family isn't from around here."

Hadvar seemed like he was about to say something, when Kulaan suddenly put his arms in Hadvar's face, looking pointedly at his bindings, which Hadvar quickly moved to cut the rope.

"Now then, I'm going back out…" Kulaan stopped as he heard someone approaching.

Someone's coming, he mouthed to Hadvar, who discreetly drew his sword.

Two Stormcloak soldiers walked up, not paying attention to their surroundings.

Kulaan moved around to sneak behind them.

'They really are fools,' Kulaan thought to himself, 'One dressed up as an Imperial, but it is obvious that they're Stormcloaks, this is Imperial land, and two enemies wouldn't be talking.'

Suddenly, one of them noticed Hadvar, and made to lung at him, drawing his sword.

Kulaan leapt from behind, grabbing the neck of the soldier. As the soldier made to try to stab him, he grabbed his sword arm with both hands, and broke his wrist.

Kulaan grabbed the sword before it could hit the ground, and promptly slashed the soldier's throat, he then went up and grabbed the other soldier who was fighting Hadvar from behind, and then did the same to him.

"That was easy," he noted.

Hadvar kept his sword drawn, looking at him warily.

"Where exactly did you learn how to fight?"

"Nowhere and everywhere," Kulaan answered, reached down to the soldier with the Imperial arm or, and beginning to strip it off of him.

"What are you doing?"

"I need armour, and you need a partner, if there's anymore hostile warriors in here, we need to work together if either of us want to get out of here alive, so what do you say you sheath that sword and let's get going."

Hadvar seemed to consider for a moment, before complying. Kulaan put on the armour, and the began to walk

As the two walked down the hall, Kulaan sent a telepathic call to his brother.

-Miraak, are you all right?-

What Kulaan received in return wasn't an answer, so much as an impression; Miraak was alive, but very very weak. However, he seemed to be safe enough now, wherever he was.

Kulaan and Hadvar walked a ways, making for underground passages. Even from down there, the battle above could still be heard. However, it was dying down, neither of them entertained the delusion it was because the dragon was being defeated.

Walking a ways down, the two heard the sounds of a battle. Readying their weapons, the prepared for a fight.

Two Imperials were facing five Stormcloaks. One of the Imperials opened his hands, and bolts of lightening fired out at his opponents.

'Magic' Kulaan thought to himself, he'd never seen it before, but he'd heard of its power, and how dangerous it was.

Hadvar leapt into the battle, but Kulaan merely watched, and waited.

He saw an opening when one of the Stormcloaks stood in front of him with his back turned, he lunged forward and stabbed the Stormcloak in the gut, and took his sword.

Using the two swords, Kulaan leapt into the fight, and with the numbers quickly evened out, the Stormcloaks fell.

"That was quite impressive," The magic user said, "And may I ask who you are?"

However, Kulaan was busy looking at the room, it was filled with cages, and dead bodies, and, spikes.

"What is this place?" Kulaan asked

"A torture chamber," Hadvar answered reluctantly and somewhat bitterly, "Wish we didn't need them, but…"

"They do serve a purpose," The sorcerer, the torturer said, with a smug smile on his face.

Kulaan remember the bodies of his parents that he'd found in the woods, even with all the decay that surrounded them, he could still see the signs of torture inflicted upon them.

Fuelled by his rage, Kulaan took the second sword and through it straight into the torturer's chest. When the other Imperial moved to attack, Kulaan quickly dispatched him to.

"What are you doing?" Hadvar yelled

"I am not on your side! Nor am I a fan of beings that gain joy out of inflicting pain on others. I can understand killing if you have to, but this," He motioned his arms around the room, "Is just wrong. Now, we still need each other, but is you want to stay in this den of inequity, fine, I'll go off on my own."

Kulaan started walking off, Hadvar thought for a second, before joining him.

"I know it definitely isn't the highlight of the empire, but those rooms do serve a purpose. We've uncovered plots that would have meant the deaths of thousands of people, and stopped them."

"There are other ways, tell me, is it easy for you to fight for an empire that uses such means."

"My father was and Imperial, his father before him, I've been raised to be a soldier since the day I was born, so, yes, it is rather easy. What about you?"

"I was raised to be what I needed to be in order to survive, nothing more."

The snuck through the tunnels, dispatching hostiles as they came across them, though not all the Stormcloaks were hostile, some just wanted to get out of this hell hole, Kulaan couldn't blame them.

Eventually, the stone tunnels have way to natural ones, ones filled not with warriors, but animals. There was a nest full of frostbite spiders, which was a pain to get out of.

"Their venom is meant to weaken, not kill, and it does not last long," Hadvar said as the walked passed the corpses.

"I know, there are some just south of Skyrim's border, I've dealt with them before."

However, they came across something that was not going to be easy to get out of.

"Cave bear," Kulaan whispered with dread, they were deadly beasts, furthermore, this one looked like it hadn't eaten in a while. While this meant it wasn't as strong, it was a lot fiercer.

Kulaan looked and saw Hadvar readying his bow.

"Wait," He whispered, "One arrow isn't going to be enough, and if he realizes where he are, we're dead.

"What do you suggest we do then?" He asked impatiently.

"Sneak passed," Kulaan replied, "He hasn't fed in a while, he's weak, he's also tired, if we go by quietly he won't even know we're here."

While he seemed calm, Kulaan was actually quite nervous. He mastered staying quiet on his hunting trips, which, combined with patience, was critical. However, he had never walked right past a starving cave bear before.

The two crept by slowly, making sure to make no sound. Several times it appeared as if the beast was going to wake, but every time it merely turned over, and continued to lie on the cold ground.

All in all, it took about two hours to successfully get far enough away from the bear that they needn't worry about it chasing them.

-Miraak, I made it out, how about you?-

Kulaan waited, but there was no reply from his twin.

Suddenly, a cold thought ran through him. There had been times when he had been unable to contact his brother; when they were too far apart from one another.

"How far away from Helgen are we?" Kulaan asked, panic rising in his heart

"A fair ways, those passages were designed so that people could escape a raid, they had to wind up far away from Helgen."

"Tunnels? Was there more than one passage?"

"Yes, there were nine, each heading in a different direction. Why what's wrong?"

"I can't hear my brother," Kulaan said, and in that moment he wasn't the warrior that had survived a dragon attack and had cut down his enemies in order to get to safety, in that moment, he was an eighteen-year-old boy who just wanted to be with his brother.

"My parents are dead," Kulaan said after a few moments of silence, with only nature providing noise, "Miraak is all I have left."

"You said you could sense that he was alive, when we were in the citadel, can you still sense it?"

Kulaan closed his eyes and concentrated, searching, reaching, until he finally felt it.

"Yes, he is alive, and I am going to find him."

"Yes, I have a feeling you will, but now, you're weak, I'm weak; we need food and shelter. There is a town a small ways to the north, I have family there that will be willing to open their door to us for the night."

"…All right."

**Well, chapter two is done, what do you guys think? The next chapter will be happening at the same time as this one, and will be from Miraak's point of view. That's how it's going to be from now one, one from Kulaan, and one from Miraak.**


	3. Notice

Hey, this isn't a chapter, but I'm just saying that I'm going on vacation soon, so there won't be any updates on any of the stories for a while. However, I will be working on the stories while one vacation, so there should be some updates shortly after I get back

Sorry for any inconvenience


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